Music Program Concerts and Events

The UCCS Music Program presents over 30 dynamic events each season: concerts, guest artists, masterclasses and workshops. The First Fridays Seminar is a monthly forum dedicated to building an engaged culture of lifelong musicianship through the presentation of research, performance and pedagogical practice by visiting artists, faculty and students. Student recitals showcase the musical breadth and interdisciplinary depth of our program. And the Peak FreQuency Creative Arts series presents work by our award-winning faculty as well as invited guests from the international music world. Our events are open to all students and community members of the Pikes Peak region - come join us!

Recitals and Concerts

Peak FreQuency: Collaboration in the Age of Echo Chambers, Part II: Bordering Li(n)es
Wednesday, 10 October 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Chapman Foundations Recital Hall, Ent Center for the Arts
A concert suite for those in the crossings with visiting pianist and composer Thollem McDonas and VAPA Music faculty members Haleh Abghari (voice) and Jane Rigler (flutes). The trio will present new compositions conceived specifically for this concert, incorporating their respective sonic experiences through explorations about borders, immigration, humanity and reverberant truths and lies.

Peak FreQuency: Invisible Arcs
Friday, 8 March 2019, 7:30pm
Saturday, 9 March 2019, 7:30pm
Sunday, 10 March 2019, 2pm
Chapman Foundations Recital Hall, Ent Center for the Arts
The 2019 Peak FreQuency festival provides space for constructive discourse about environment, ancestry, and political boundaries through music. We aim to redefine the concert music tradition and challenge stylistic boundaries through collaboration with other genres, and art forms. Here, musical material becomes redefined as the environment, bodies, culture, and objects. This year we are featuring Raven Chacon, composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, and Nina C. Young, an emerging composer and sound artist from New York. VAPA Music Program faculty will be featured performers alongside other local musical specialists of new music.

Lectures and Masterclasses

Third Friday Colloquia: Dies irae, dies illa: Music in the Apocalyptic Mode
Heller Center for Arts & Humanities
Friday, 21 September 2018
12:15 pm - 1:15pm
Colin McAllister - University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
This essay will explore the idea of “music in the apocalyptic mode” from the late Middle Ages to the present day. We will delineate three broad categories: 1. Music in the Biblical/Traditional Apocalyptic Mode, wherein expectations, imagery, rhetoric, and tropes of the apocalyptic worldview have been articulated in musical works. The chief medium here is lyrical – i.e., hymns, libretti, song lyrics, etc. – although the musicological and performative aspects of the works are also important. 2. Music in the Secular Apocalyptic Mode, much of which defines and re-defines the ideas apocalyptic to fit changing circumstances and audiences. Hallmark examples include the dramatic operas of Richard Wagner and certain compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and Olivier Messiaen. In 3. The Apocalyptic Mode and Musical Form, the music itself defines “apocalyptic” by means of tonal, rhythmic and formal structures, as well as the underlying aesthetic, extra-musical inspiration, or reaction to cultural or environmental settings. Free and open to the public.

Collaboration in the Age of Echo Chambers, Part I
Ent Center for the Arts - Margot Lane Studio
Wednesday, 8 October 2018
6:00 pm
Collaboration in the Age of Echo Chambers, Part I is a lecture/presentation by the perpetually traveling pianist, keyboardist, vocalist, composer, improviser, songwriter, activist, author and serial collaborator, Thollem McDonas. The artist talk is followed by a master-class/workshop with UCCS music students. All students are highly encouraged to attend. Free and open to the public.

Third Friday Colloquia: Analysis and Interpretation of Late Debussy Piano Music
Heller Center for Arts & Humanities
Friday, 19 October 2018
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Aleck Karis - University of California, San Diego
In his late music, Debussy employs a sometimes bewildering range of different techniques: the harmony can reference tonal, modal, chromatic, whole-tone, or poly-tonal approaches, often in the span of a single phrase . Adding to the complexity is the freedom the composer takes in referencing foreign styles, such as music from China, Japan, Indonesia, or the United States. Using examples taken from Debussy’s Etudes and Children’s Corner Suite, Prof. Karis will discuss: problems and challenges of harmonic analysis, Debussy’s fascination with the single line, questions of form and pianistic issues. Free and open to the public.